Eathan Cruse alleges police unlawfully assaulted him during a counter-terror raid in 2014

Eathan Cruse is suing police, claiming he was tethered and bashed in April 2015 when a crack squad made up of officers from across Australia stormed his home. The then 19-year-old was arrested on suspicion of involvement with a plot to behead a police officer on Anzac Day the same year, but was never charged.

A NSW officer admitted using hammer strikes – the underside of a clenched fist – and his knee to subdue Mr Cruse.

“I did grab his arm and met resistance and that’s why I delivered the four to five hammer strikes,” the officer, known as Operator 27, told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

This happened after Mr Cruse, who was lying on his stomach in the hallway, was slid into the kitchen by the NSW officer, the court was told. Police argue the force used against Mr Cruse was reasonable and that it was before he was handcuffed.

But Mr Cruse claims he was restrained with cable ties and beaten in the 3.30am police raid on his family home at suburban Eumemmerring.

The officer denied Mr Cruse had been restrained before he was taken into the kitchen or that he been heavy-handed. “I don’t feel I’ve beaten him at all,” he said after barrister Andrew Clements QC suggested he’d beaten Mr Cruse into submission.

The unidentified officer, who gave evidence from behind a screen, said the strikes were to control and “distract” Mr Cruse because he was resisting arrest.

“I believe he started bleeding when I gained control of his hands … I put my knee to the back of his head to hold him down,” the officer said. He denies Mr Cruse was slammed into the fridge, instead saying he slipped in blood.

“We slipped and tripped … I’ve fallen, the target (Mr Cruse) had lightly been pushed into the fridge area,” the officer said. “He definitely wasn’t pushed. It was more as if he slipped.”

Police had been monitoring Mr Cruse after he came to the attention of security agency ASIO because of his friendships with terrorist Numan Haider and IS fighter Irfaan Hussein, which put him at risk of radicalisation.

Haider was fatally shot by police after he stabbed two officers at Endeavour Hills in 2014, while Hussein was killed in 2015 while fighting in Syria.

Mr Cruse was not charged over the beheading plot but his friend Sevdet Besim was later imprisoned for 14 years.